In this case Susan had pled guilty of the crime, thereby agreeing with the verdict, so it was hard to see what basis there was for an appeal, and this was also made doubly hard when she now did not know what her crime had been or about her first decision to plead guilty.
So it went on and on, round and round. This afternoon he thought he might go and see Rebecca, the personal assistant to the Attorney General. She seemed a bright young thing, quick and smart, as well as vivacious in a slightly boyish way, not exactly beautiful but with cute charm.
She was a lawyer in her own right and seemed to have the ear of the big boss, the person who needed to cut a deal in the political world. After all she saw Mr AG every day. She also seemed sympathetic to Susan’s plight; both he and Sandy had casual conversations with her about the case in the earlier stages of proceedings when they had both attended meetings there.
And she must be someone to trust; working in that high position she was privy to all her boss’s confidential papers, so it should be safe to talk to her off the record, just to see if she could use her legal brain and some influence to try and get some new ideas on the table.
He wondered if he should go off to University and study law to figure out all this complicated legal manoeuvring properly. But that would take years and would not help him in the here and now.
He felt like the meat in the sandwich, the go between separating his own friends from government. He had to walk carefully on both sides of the fence. He liked his job as a policeman with the freedom it gave him to run cases and investigations. He did not want to throw that away through this event. Yet his strongest loyalty lay to this girl and to trying to find a way out for her that let her quietly get on with her life.
Well he would just have to chance it, to see if Rebecca would meet him for a drink after work so they could have an off the record chat about where to go from here. He knew it should be handled by the barrister David had retained but Alan thought his non-legal background might help him be more pragmatic in finding creative solutions, that would pass a reasonable level of legal scrutiny, but most of all would work in the real world.
So he decided that in half an hour, when he had finished the report he was writing about a minor burglary, he would take an early mark and head into the city and call to see Rebecca on spec. It would be around 4 pm when he go there, nearly knock off time on a regular day. He would see if he could get a chance to talk to her, hoping it was quiet in her office. Alan knew her boss was away in Melbourne at a conference about something legal. So, with a bit of luck, she would be there on her own with not much to do.
He would ask her if he could have an off the record chat about this case, just to try and nut it out. Perhaps she would have time for a coffee break or an ‘after work’ drink. While they were not exactly friends they knew each other well enough for a conversation.
He arrived to find himself the only person in the office apart from Rebecca. He was not sure quite how to broach it,
She smiled at him brightly and said, “So, my favourite police officer has come to pay me a visit on a quiet afternoon, with my boss away and nothing else happening. Perhaps he will offer to buy a drink in the local in a few minutes once I have logged off my computer.”
As they walked outside from her office she asked Alan to call her Beck, saying Rebecca was too formal. He found she was easy to chat to as they walked; she had a manner that set strangers at ease, not flirtatious but earnest and interested.
Alan bought them both a drink and they found a secluded corner in the bar which gave privacy. They exchanged pleasantries for a minute as they sipped their drinks.
Beck struck Alan as a person with lots of intelligence who was used to thinking outside the box. He had niggles of reservation about giving too much away. But she would hardly be in her current job if she was unreliable, he had high level security clearance and hers must be even higher, considering all the sensitive ‘cabinet in confidence’ documents she dealt with.
Beck opened the door to a more serious conversation with, “I am sure you did not come to visit me to flirt or pass the time, you are too focused for that, and I know that Sandy would cut your balls out if you made a pass. So I suppose you should tell me what it is you want to talk about.”
He explained the nub of his problem, “I have been told by a friend of a friend that a person has discovered where Susan is. But she seems to have lost her memory and apparently she does not know remember anything from before she vanished. She still has a murder conviction and her bail was revoked when she disappeared though it is clear from all that followed, including the coroner’s findings, that what happened was self-defence. But still, if she surrenders herself she will be returned to custody in the NT.
“So it is unclear how this can be resolved. Her time for appeal has long passed and, if she cannot remember what happened, how can an appeal be made, even if she is willing. I am told that when she disappeared she was in an extremely fragile emotional state, even suicidal. Her current memory loss seems to be the result of some sort of nervous breakdown.
“So it is unlikely that she is in a fit state to stand trial. But yet, without a retrial, it is hard to see how she can have her guilty plea undone. To put her back in jail and let her conviction stand, or even for the judge to resume the case for sentencing and then release her, would mean that she would have to return to Darwin. If this happened she would become a huge sensation again overnight, the centre of enormous media scrutiny. That could be extremely damaging to her current mental state. So the people I have been talking to refuse to agree to any return by her to Darwin at this stage. As we do not know where she is we do not want to damage the current cooperation we have by acting in a way which appears to threaten her. If we do so we may lose our connection with her.
“While we could seek to locate her independently and even arrest her or have her extradited if she is interstate, this is likely to be both harmful for her wellbeing and to cause extensive sensational publicity which will arouse very strong sympathy for her plight along with a bad public reaction to actions to bring her in, particularly if any harm comes to her.
“One or two people have floated the idea of a pardon. But I don’t quite see how it could be done. And, of course, anything which happens would need the OK of your boss. So, rather than have lawyers talking to lawyers and going in endless circles, I thought I should just try and get your ideas. Perhaps if we can think of something that makes sense you could tell me how best to make it work through all the official channels.
“So what I am really asking is for you to use your legal brain and perhaps use your contacts through your office and your boss to try and help me figure out a solution to this mess.”
They talked for almost an hour. Beck was as smart as whip. She knew about both the politics and the two sides of public opinion, those who saw Saint Susan and those who saw only the murdering witch. Her legal brain quickly explored the various options and dismissed them in much the same manner that others had. The retrial was fraught with problems and the media sensation which accompanied it would be even worse than last time, not to mention the futility of conducting a trial when the defendant had no memory of the events.
Some sort of commission on inquiry was also possible, leading to a recommendation from a judge to the Attorney General for release. Asking the judge to convene a private hearing for sentencing was also possible. But they were all full of risks, loopholes and problems. In all cases it seemed that Susan needed to return to the NT.
Her ability to give any useful evidence remained a big problem. It was not as if she was mentally incompetent and needed to be put into mandatory psychiatric care, just she had no knowledge of anything that had happened from that part of her life. This fact had no bearing on her guilt or innocence, only on her ability to testify.
The option of having her psychologically evaluated was considered, but it came with a high risk of disclosing her location. Therefore it was doubtful that agreement could be gained by the other part
y for it. And, if it confirmed she had no memory it took them nowhere; whereas if it was considered she was scamming then that created a whole new set of problems.
The only thing that seemed to have some merit was the pardon option but the administrator had to act on the government’s advice and so the government needed a good basis for recommending this. Beck agreed she would commission advice on this option and Alan agreed he would float it with the other side.
As they talked Alan grew more comfortable with Beck. She seemed to be on his side; she had sharp intelligence and could see all the angles. After they had finished their legal discussion Beck asked him about himself and Sandy, saying she had heard a rumor they had first met on this job and asking if it was true, also asking him what it was like to be living with another serious professional who lived and breathed their job and whether they planned to marry and have children.
He found himself telling of his first meeting Sandy, him thinking she was a bloke and being at first dismayed that a wet city girl was on the job, then how she caught him out about the fish which Charlie had hidden and how it led to his friendship with Charlie. Then he told her of the huge and freaky crocodile who watched their every move.
He thought Beck would laugh at this and tell him it was superstitious nonsense. But she said she was a Territory girl, born and bred, and had seen too much to laugh at these things, she got the spirits of the land thing; it made a strange sense to her.
He found him telling Beck of his romance with Sandy leading up to their planned wedding last Christmas and how they had ended up postponing it with all the mess over Susan. He told of the strange mind link which had seemed to exist between Sandy and Susan, a mind link which revealed Susan’s terror on the day the murder had happened.
He told how, at first, almost to outdo each other, he and Sandy had been determined to turn this case into a murder, together working to unearth the clues that made it so, the timber fragments in the skull, the tyre track that linked the vehicle to the site, Susan’s DNA in the vehicle, the CCTV footage of Susan, then an unknown person, who was together with the murder victim at Uluru, then the girl at the roadhouse who remembered Susan telling how she had met this man while diving on the Barrier Reef, leading to the discovery of her identity in Cairns.
But then, once they had discovered that the person responsible was an English tourist visitor, someone who had never done anything remotely like this, it had stopped making sense and they knew there must be more.
He told of the weeks she had spent in England trying to get the story from this girl as they went through the extradition process and how strongly she had reacted when she felt she had been tricked into giving something away, but then of her voluntary decision to return to Australia for the murder trial and of her seemingly inexplicable decision to plead guilty but tell nothing of what caused the events to happen.
He told how both he and Sandy felt responsible for what had happened, because without their digging to open a murder case it would never have begun. Yet, once they found the girl they knew it did not make sense for her to deliberately kill this man.
Alan told of his desperate search to find out about the texts before Susan was convicted and sentenced to spend her life in jail. He even told about Anne and Sandy’s premonition that she would try and commit suicide rather than have the truth come out.
He felt as if, in telling this story, he would make Beck into an ally who understood what had led to this bizarre set of events. In doing so he hoped she would feel sympathy for the situation which followed where Susan was convicted of a murder, but the most reasonable understanding of the events was that she had acted in self-defence and had only pled guilty to stop damaging information about the man she killed coming out, that she had done this out of a strange sense of misplaced loyalty or perhaps to protect her children from this knowledge.
Beck was a good listener and he felt she was in Susan’s corner, showing sympathy for her plight. But as the conversation progresses he began to become just a tiny bit uncomfortable. It was nothing specific that he could put his finger on, it was just that her curiosity seemed to make her want to burrow deeper into this girl and what she was doing now with questions like; where she was living now, was she now living with someone or on her own?
They were all perfectly reasonable questions which someone in her position would want to know. But he felt unease with this direction. He became evasive in his answers, saying he did not know even when he did.
He knew she could read this in him and while at first she did not let on it started to become like a cat and mouse game.
She ended up by saying, “I know you know more about where she is and how she came to be found than you are letting on, but let’s leave it that way for now. I can see why to keep this information secret for now.”
As they went their separate ways he felt he had another ally in Susan’s corner; Beck understood what was at stake. She said would use her influence to try and untangle all these mixed up threads.
Chapter 14 – Finding Family
It was now December and getting close to Christmas time. Vic thought about Jane’s request to know her parents. He also remembered her mother’s plea to see her daughter again and meet her grandchildren. It seemed time to do something, though he was not sure what that was.
His occasional talks to Buck and Anne had not revealed any new threats, but he was still nervous about disclosing their location to other people. For now interest in Susan was fading. But he knew it would stay that way for a minute if there was real information to go on. So he kept being really careful. He did not use a credit card or go to banks, he got paid in cash for work, he mostly rang others on a public phone; all to reduce the risk.
He hated to think what effect it might have on Jane if she was tied to Susan and her past life. Jane had made no more requests for information about her parents and seemed to have no desire to know about other parts of her past life and, since the night of them becoming lovers, he felt they had made a pact not to try and reopen the past.
But yet, for the sake of Jane and her parents he wanted to allow this connection with them to happen. He did not know whether it would trigger memories but he felt it was time.
The challenge was to work out how to do it without this becoming a way to trace him or her. In the end he rang Anne to ask her, as she seemed to have the best ideas about this. She was also a logical link to Jane’s parents, the childhood friend who was keeping in touch with them.
Anne said at once, “How about a Christmas reunion? David and I are going to his family property for Christmas. It is over the Blue Mountains at the back of Sydney. His parents know Susan’s parents well as a result of the engagement and the trial. They have stayed in touch. Plus there are other cousins in Sydney who Susan’s parents may want to visit. So I am almost sure that if we invited them to come out for a visit they would.
“I talked to both Susan’s parents on the phone last week. I try to ring once a fortnight. They both said how much they wished to see their daughter and their grandchildren before they grow up too much. They did not seem to have anything important planned for Christmas.
“Perhaps, while we at the farm over Christmas-New Year, David could arrange for you to visit us, he would tell the farm staff that you are a friend we met in the NT and say you are bringing your girlfriend and her two children to all come and stay for a few days. At the same time David’s parents could invite out Susan’s Mum and Dad, and her brother Tim too. They can stay at the main house; there are plenty of spare rooms.
“There is an empty cottage about two hundred yards from the main house where you could all stay. It is down near the creek and surrounded by bush, so it is very private.
“That way, when you come to visit as our friends they will be there too, but there will be no obvious connection for the workers to notice, not that I don’t trust them, but it is still best if they do not know.
“As it is a property in the country there will be no snoopi
ng journalists or other people who will gossip. It will just be a visit of my good friend Vic and his girlfriend, Jane, and children, staying in a cottage on the farm, while Susan’s parents are there as guests of David’s parents. No one will know they are really Jane’s parents. I think that will work.
“For your travel, it is best if you drive down; assuming that old banger of a car that Buck bought you is still reliable, because, if you fly your movements are readily traceable. If you drive, stay in cheap motels or caravan parks along the way and don’t use a credit card, then I think there should be very little risk of anyone working out who you are.
“Perhaps, to be even safer Jane should dye her hair a different color, strawberry blonde would look good with her blue eyes; that would make it even harder to for anyone to guess her identity.
“So let’s make it happen. I know her parents will jump at the chance to see her and meet their grandkids and I can’t wait to see my friend again, even if she does not remember me.
“Ring back next week once I have had a chance to get it organized.”
That night, when they were in bed together, he asked Jane, “Remember how you said you wanted to know your parents. Would you like to meet them at Christmas time?”
Jane hugged him extra tight and said, “I would love that.”
Next morning she had a pensive look on her face so Vic asked, “What is the matter?”
“I feel scared I won’t know who they are when I see them. Or what if they don’t want to see me?”
Vic said, “I promise they do really want to see you and also to meet David and Anne who they have never met, their first grandchildren. I will ask them to post a photo of themselves so you know what they look like.”
With that it was agreed. Next day they told David and Anne they were going to a place near Sydney to visit their grandparents and they were wild with excitement too.
Slowly the days ticked over towards Christmas. Vic had his car serviced. He told the mechanic to give it a careful check to ensure that everything was good and safe for a long trip.
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